Conflicting Spectra? (Part 1)

Draft 4.0

i. Discerning truth may often prove a matter of discovering and discerning perception. A periodic re-evaluation of our perceptual world may be necessary to unearth the realities buried beneath the apparent world. Once excavated, dirt must be moved somewhere. As a result, new values appear and decline. Degeneration, both actual and metaphorical, occurs with increasing entropy.[1] Static states decay and eventually crumble. Even in decline, new niches always appear to be exploited. Opportunistic elements will therefore attempt the seizure of advantage and consolidation of power along these new avenues. Easy targets are struck first, setting an example, thereby creating perceived power. Politics is settling such conflicts mostly through peaceful means. Hostility, the path of least resistance, is easy to harness, but can become uncontrollable. A simmer is better than a boil. Aggression must find relatively harmless means of release. The resultant great spectacle presents vicarious means of escape to pacify the population. Some personality types might occasionally become dissatisfied, or even break out, which gives the spectacle fresh diversions for the masses. Even failure is a success. Revolt becomes a diversion, and revenge impossible. Like the phoenix, the destroyed will always arise again to be struck down a thousand times if need be.
Instincts may always be cultivated in populations as well as individuals. Social constructs are partially instinctual, but may be confused with others mimicking their form. A shadow may arise across the collective body by feeding upon the malice and frustration internalized within each individual comprising the mob. Power is through reinforcement, mutually modeling and compelling thought and deed. The desire exists, and everything becomes possible. Of course, the mob may only remain agitated for so long before succumbing to exhaustion. Agitation may be utilized for less destructive degrees or purposes. By demanding relatively smaller emotional investment or effort, a lesser level may be maintained for longer periods of time. Stress is an effect. Indeed, if properly managed, only agitation itself is required, or wanted, for maintenance of the status quo. Goals or enemies must be directed along accepted and appropriate channels. The direction of the herd may change, but never to an extreme. Too much cultural inertia exists, thus risking disaster if the wheel is jerked too suddenly. Passion over non-issues may allow more pressing concerns to be unnoticed, which benefits the power structure. Pressure points must be relieved of stress, and best efficiently. Hence, the skilled employ techniques to shape the attitudes of themselves and others. Often particulars are not important. Democrats and Republicans are not fundamentally different, but are portrayed as false spectral extremes for maximum advantage in all things. All interests are supposedly represented. Hence, one may not claim to be oppressed, rather simply ignored, discounted or trivialized if dissenting viewpoints do not find mass media outlets in a capitalist system. Lowest common denominators are always lukewarm. Any real threats are exploited for maximum advantage. The rebel is alive. Revolt is dead. Eventually competing alternatives are not even formulated because it becomes nothing but hollow academic talk. Eventually the static becomes stagnant and decays. Hence the mob returns and the extremes meet.

ii. Causal and effectual relationships are not always readily apparent. Order may be confused and entangled with false deductive reasoning. Over the development of human thought, many different schemes have been called upon for explanation. Only relatively recently has the rational been slowly pressed into service. Order of occurrence, how and why, may be debatable, and justified as opposed to the supernatural and metaphysical. Meaning is a human definition sometimes clouding fact. No reasonable scientist will argue the chemical compositions of common household substances, but may endlessly debate possible consumer hazards. Hence, only the reproducible is accepted as proof. The resultant situation is both harmful and beneficial according to application. It may not be any other way. Only common similarities identified and united by language enable identification with past experience and education. Intuition becomes discounted. Emotion need not cloud every concern; technique need not be sterile. Often a mask of one is mistaken for the other. Few real constants exist, just a succession toward the future. The western mind is focused upon the present, and views the world accordingly. Judgements are similarly guided. The world changes and memories of the past fade with time and become distorted. Memory is always fluid, and often temporally nonlinear. Likewise, even the future has an effective end. The universe may continue to expand when the last stars have died, but will mean nothing against a backdrop of nothing. Any contrary perspective will be irrelevant, but not before. Even error may be grand, even sublime for a time, before outliving its time. The democratic mythology is among the most notable.
False association results from erroneous causality. Attributable to belief, hope or acceptance, two unlike things are ascribed a higher common meaning. One is often called upon to uphold common myths and it is usually easier to go with the flow. One must be persuaded, rather than convinced, when personally lacking the time or inclination to explore every issue facing society. Ideologically consistent remedies always fail to grasp the true state of the world. The ideal is failure. Economic difficulties have often occurred due to widespread failure to account the world. Although often popularly attributed as a cause, the 1929 stock market crashed as a result of a slowing world economy hampered by a trade war. Popular, simplified and false conclusions spread outward, like the spider web pattern on a broken windshield. The ramifications are not always appreciated, or even readily apparent. Trends develop through many cross currents, some far below the surface. Yet the wind is most noticed.

[1] Entropy, the level of disorder in a system, will always be used in this mixed sense when appropriate. Perhaps, the term may relate a non-quantified associated phenomena, but cannot be proven so by definition. The basic problem being nothing may exist beyond when proof is narrow, being necessary for technical requirements. Of course, without it, one has astrology. Perhaps the intuitive could be tested...

[2] Sometimes for propaganda purposes...